North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos Jr. announced that The North Ward Center has received a $17,500 grant from the City to help the non-profit defray the cost of purchasing a new bus for its senior program.

Councilman Ramos said the grant will directly benefit clients of Casa Israel Adult Medical Day Care Center, which was founded in 2001 by The North Ward Center. Casa Israel provides high-quality medical care and social services for up to 120 Newark residents every day.

Ground was broken on a new multiuse athletic field at the Waterfront in the North Ward that will be funded in part with a grant secured by North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos Jr.

Ramos was joined by Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark Housing Authority Executive Director Keith Kinard, and representatives the U.S. Housing and Urban Development, Coca-Cola Co. and Constellation at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Owned by the Newark Housing Authority, the $9.7 million Waterfront opened in May 2013 as a center for sports, arts and entertainment. However, a large field behind the complex remained a work in progress.

This article originally appeared on WBGO.org

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In Newark, robbers can turn around and sell stolen phones to local pawn shops for hundreds of dollars, no questions asked. North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos is proposing a law he says would put a stop to that practice.

Under the law, anyone selling a phone would first have to provide buyers with two forms of ID. And second-hand dealers would have to keep records on every phone they buy.

Ramos says if criminals know they’ll have to give out their information to sell the phone, they’re less likely to steal it in the first place.

"Now they have to provide identification," he says. "Information that the city and the police department would have access to."

He says cell phone robbery is the fastest growing sector of violent crime in Newark.

“I had a murder in my ward a little over a month ago with a young lady they basically robbed her of her cell phone and the incident unfortunately turned deadly, so this is an important step for us to be able to track who’s buying phones within the city of Newark but also to get information '

More than a third of strong-arm robberies committed in Newark last year were cell phone thefts.